Time for Blogging

January 30, 2012 at 10:20 pm | Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments

Lately I have had a lot I want to blog about; my head is filled with words that I’m ready to type, edit, post.  But I seem unable to find the time to sit down and get it done.  Part of this is having a baby, being tired after soothing a teething mess from 3-4:30 am, part of this is the other responsibilities of running and maintaining a household and my own (unrealistic?) expectations of what that should look like, and part of this is spending so much time being a consumer of other people’s blogs that by the time I’ve caught up with Google reader, Facebook, and Twitter (and is one really ever CAUGHT UP?) that, wow, it’s really late, and I have a child who seems to wake up earlier the later I stay up at night.

And yet, there are so many other moms on the Internet who seem to get it done, that these reasons feel like the flimsiest of excuses when I type them out.  So what’s their secret?  Is it because their kitchen floors don’t need to be swept and mopped every five minutes the way mine does?  Are they not constantly washing dishes?  Do they order take-out every night? Neglect their children?  Or do their angel children sleep 20 hours a day and entertain themselves the four hours they are awake?

Image

Certainly not.  I know that if I want to write more, I need to prioritize better, and most importantly, for now anyway, spend a lot less time worrying about what others are writing (and just how do they manage to produce so much content and write two posts a day each with 37 edited images??)

How do you make time to blog?  Do you feel like you have to give something up in order to sit down to write?  How much time do you spend writing daily/weekly?

LC’s Nursery Art

January 30, 2012 at 10:19 pm | Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

LC's Nursery Art

LC’s Nursery art painted by my dad. He brought these when he visited in December. They are inspired by his trip to Costa Rica.

Weekend Snapshots

January 17, 2012 at 9:55 pm | Posted in Family, Home, Life | Leave a comment
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We had a fantastic long weekend.  W had four days off, so we were very spoiled by having him home.  I think LC is quickly turning into a daddy’s girl.  She has such fun playing with him, and she just chatters away when she’s around him.  She’s also started crawling from the living room into his office when he’s in there working.

Friday I made pancakes for breakfast and Miss LC got to eat her very own pancake.  She LOVED it! I can’t wait to make them again to watch her gobble it up.

baby eats pancakes

Yummy yummy yummy!

We’ve had nice warm weather for January, so we took advantage of the sun and went to check out a park near our house.  This park was pretty great–it has a big dog park and some really nice play structures that LC will enjoy when she’s older, but the feature I was most excited about were the swings! (Is it just me or is it getting harder to find playgrounds with swings?). We took Duncan for a frolic in the dog park and then headed over to give LC her first push in the swing. Seeing her smile and hearing her giggle was so good for my heart that we went back on Sunday!

baby_swinging

Yesterday I was most excited about tackling our bedroom. I’ve been working on deep cleaning and purging in preparation for our upcoming move this spring.  It feels so much more peaceful and calming to walk into a clean bedroom.

In other exciting (hah!) news, I have cooked dinner every single night this month.  I was already cooking most nights, but I have really been doing better about meal planning and shopping, and I hope that this will help us save some money to meet some of our financial goals more quickly.  Most of my recipes this month have come from Real Simple and Cooking Light magazines and I may post a rundowns of some of our favorites toward the end of the month.  Some nights I really don’t feel like cooking, but it has definitely helped me to have a plan so that I’m not scrambling to make a meal out of thin air at 6 pm.

So, here’s to a 4-day work week! I’m ready for the weekend NOW.

Stroller Review: Joovy Zoom 360 (vs. BOB Revolution)

January 12, 2012 at 10:17 pm | Posted in Things I think | Leave a comment
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I wanted a jogging stroller.   I wanted a BOB.  I did not want to spend $400 $450 on a jogging stroller, because to be honest, I wasn’t sure how often I would use it.  It’s scorching hot eight months out of the year and our neighborhood is chock full of steep hills.  I also have a teeeeensy issue with starting something and not sticking with it.

So.  After a few weeks (months?) of late-night Google searches and reading of Amazon reviews, we bit the bullet and bought the Joovy Zoom 360.  We’ve now owned it for five months, and I can now succinctly say that I love it and I’m glad we got it over the BOB.

A few key points:

  • I find the Joovy to be just as stylish as the BOB.
  • Baby seems very comfortable, and the seat is easy to adjust.
  • In the Amazon reviews I read, some people complained that the handle bar was a little too high.  I’m 5’6″ and I have not found this to be an issue.
  • My sister owns a BOB and my mom takes it on long (~7 miles) runs several times a week.  She tested my stroller over Christmas and said she prefers the parent console on the Joovy (and it comes included with the stroller! Bonus!).
  • The Joovy Zoom 360 is about 4 pounds heavier than the BOB Revolution.  My mom noticed this difference, but she said it wasn’t a big deal.  I personally do not find the stroller to be too heavy.
  • The sun canopy is awesome, which was a key selling point for me.
  • We had a flat tire after we got it (not the fault of Joovy; we have these crazy burrs with giant thorns out here in the desert), and it was very easy to take to a bike shop and get new inner tubes.  Haven’t had a problem since.
Baby in Joovy Zoom 360

Ready for a run with Grandma!

I use this stroller for walks and runs.  I don’t take it in the car as a mall stroller and I don’t travel with it.  I think it would be a bit large for that.  I also think that if you, say, want to train for a half marathon with your baby as a friend of mine does, then the lighter weight of the BOB might make a difference to you. But I think for the average mom doing short-to-medium runs, the Joovy Zoom 360 is a fantastic value.

If you have any questions about my experience with this stroller, let me know and I’ll be happy to update the post with my answers.

*Suffice it to say, this was not a sponsored post (Is it necessary to say this every time you give your opinion about something?). We paid for our stroller out of our own pockets.

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